Plastic has taken the place of other materials in a variety of industries. Plastic has replaced glass to minimize breakage, reduce weight, and reduce energy consumed in manufacturing and transport. In other industries, plastic has replaced metal to minimize corrosion, reduce weight, and provide color-in-bulk products.
To meet the many applications for plastics, the world in the past seventy years has seen a revolution in material science arising from the combination of a thermoplastic resin and one or more functional additives to provide specific properties to the resin.
Antimicrobial properties have become particularly desirable in plastics used for many applications, including medical equipment, food processing, packaging, healthcare products, consumer and household items.